{diy dish detergent}

Hopefully you are all having a beautiful Monday too! It's been really nice weather here, so hopefully we'll get to spend just a little bit more time left outside before the work week really begins. Thank goodness it will be a short week, for those that had today off! Sundays are usually our day off from any kind of work. They always seem extra special in the afternoon, because those are the last few hours to spend together before the work, school, whatever else, things to do come back.

Today I finally bought a box grater! I guess that's a step towards fancy kitchen tools. Or perhaps that's something basic I should already have? So, while grating some soap for our homemade laundry soap, I decided it's time to share our Dish Detergent recipe! So far, this site has been pretty helpful when trying to find new natural recipes for household things. For the purpose of this recipe, these are my understood main functions of the ingredients:

Citric Acid is an active ingredient in a lot of cleaners as well as a preservative in foods. It is naturally in many citric fruits. From what I gather, it helps to dissolve grime off of the dishes. Keeps away the cloudy look on glass.

Washing soda helps to deodorize, but fighting grease and is one of the the primary purposes.

Borax is an anti-fungal/anti-mold and all-around disinfectant. It's also good for hard water.

Kosher Salt is not absolutely necessary, but helps in softening hard water, helping prevent hard water spots on dishes, and also acts as a scouring agent for dirty dishes.

ingredients.
1 c borax
1 c washing soda
1/2 c citric acid {twice as much for hard water}
1/2 c kosher salt
A container you don't want to keep, that has a lid that can close
White Vinegar {rinse agent}

I

Mix all of the ingredients, except for the vinegar. 

II

  You only need 1 tbsp of this entire mixture per load. {I've attached an old tsp spoon, and marked 'x3' on the handle so my sweetie can't forget.} Use the vinegar as a rinse agent. 

Note:

These ingredients tend to clump, due to the citric acid. So either add a tablespoon of rice {which I do}, or shake the container a few times the first day or two. Or just add 1/2 tsp citric acid in separately. Also, we tend to rinse our dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. If you're allergic to anything in this {like with any} recipe, don't risk it. 

Happy Labor Day!!